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The Microbe “Brain” – Sensory, Neuronal, Attributes of Microbes

The Microbe “Brain” – Sensory, Neuronal, Attributes of Microbes

Mar 16 2012 | comment(s)

The brain receives a variety of sensory information, then synthesizes and analyzes the data by sending it into various centers and loops.  It then determines a course of action and communicates with others.

The microbe seems to do much of this without neurons and a brain.  Individual microbes solve complex problems, such as locating food, evading predators, and communicating for complex group activity.   Microbes carry out these functions using at least six capacities that we have traditionally attributed only to brains:

Snoring: Researchers Measure How Annoying It Is

Snoring: Researchers Measure How Annoying It Is

Mar 16 2012 | comment(s)

“There exists no gold standard for the measurement of snoring.”

ICARUS Refutes OPERA's Superluminal Neutrinos - AGAIN!

ICARUS Refutes OPERA's Superluminal Neutrinos - AGAIN!

Mar 16 2012 | comment(s)

The ICARUS collaboration - operating a neutrino detector sitting not far from the OPERA experiment in the underground Laboratori del Gran Sasso in Italy - produced a refutation of the superluminality of neutrinos a while ago. That refutation was based on studying the energy spectrum of the neutrinos in the CNGS beam, coming from CERN through a trip of 700 km under the Earth's crust: superluminal neutrinos should have lost some energy due to electroweak radiation, which was not borne out by the data.
Soylent Pink: It's What's In Your Child's Lunch

Soylent Pink: It's What's In Your Child's Lunch

Mar 16 2012 | comment(s)

In our modern culture, we have both the politicization of science and the scientization of politics. They sound similar but the goals are different - the first obviously seeks to inject political agendas into science while the second seeks to make a political objective seem more rational by mapping it to a science topology.
Neutrino velocity is equal to velocity of light. Hence, mass of neutrino is ZERO?

Neutrino velocity is equal to velocity of light. Hence, mass of neutrino is ZERO?

Mar 16 2012 | comment(s)

Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the ICARUS detector at the CNGS beam

http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1203/1203.3433.pdf 
"_The expected time of flight difference between the speed of light from CERN to ICARUS and the actual position of the vertex of the LAr-TPC events has been neatly analysed. The result is compatible with the simultaneous arrival of all the 7 events with the speed of light and not compatible with respect to the result reported by OPERA" 


Notes on a Schema

Notes on a Schema

Mar 16 2012 | comment(s)

There have been some studies written on a schema called "the sick role" which defines a person who is disabled in some way.  This concept, developed by Talcott Parsons) posits that within our society, disability is a kind of "sanctioned deviance."  The sick person is released from normal social obligations and is not blamed for their condition.  In parallel to these “rights”, Parsons also found that society expected the “sick” person to fulfill two “obligations:  they are expected to want to get well and to seek and are expected to cooperate with others who want them to get well.  That seems pretty straightforward and plausible until you start examining some of the other aspects of this -- the more malignant attitude towards the disabled taken by society.
Quasars As Gravitational Lenses

Quasars As Gravitational Lenses

Mar 16 2012 | comment(s)

Quasars, powered by supermassive black holes, are among the brightest objects in the universe, outshining the total starlight of their host galaxies. 

Quasar host galaxies are hard or even impossible to see because the central quasar far outshines the galaxy. Therefore, it is difficult to estimate the mass of a host galaxy based on the collective brightness of its stars. However, gravitational lensing candidates are invaluable for estimating the mass of a quasar's host galaxy because the amount of distortion in the lens can be used to estimate a galaxy's mass.
Meta-Analysis: Marriage And Childbirth Make You Miserable (Unless You Read This)

Meta-Analysis: Marriage And Childbirth Make You Miserable (Unless You Read This)

Mar 15 2012 | comment(s)

After marriage your well-being dips and after divorce it rises; after childbirth, relationship satisfaction stays permanently below its pre-birth level -– so says a meta-analysis of 2,159 studies, published this week in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Sound dire? It is. But keep reading – the reasons for these dips and rises give us married-with-children guys hope.

Social Media Intolerance: Liberals Far More Likely To Unfriend Opposing Views

Social Media Intolerance: Liberals Far More Likely To Unfriend Opposing Views

Mar 15 2012 | comment(s)

People on the left - to international readers they go under the umbrella of 'liberals' in America, but run the gamut from social authoritarian progressives to activists to freedom-loving liberals in the traditional sense - are a lot less concerned about tolerance and diversity when it comes to differing viewpoints.
Recycling Water Boosts Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

Recycling Water Boosts Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

Mar 15 2012 | comment(s)

In areas where freshwater is scarce, recycling of wastewater seems to be common sense.  Perhaps not, argues Amy Townsend-Small, assistant professor of geology and geography at the University of Cincinnati, and a team of researchers from the University of California, Irvine.

Their research shows that wastewater recycling processes may generate more greenhouse gases than traditional water-treatment processes. Townsend-Small, along with Diane E. Pataki, Linda Y. Tseng, Cheng-Yao Tsai and Diego Rosso, studied how different types of wastewater treatment affect emissions of one greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a long-lived and potent greenhouse gas, with a warming potential of about 300 times that of carbon dioxide.
Science Hysteria - Cell Phone Use During Pregnancy May Cause ADD In Babies

Science Hysteria - Cell Phone Use During Pregnancy May Cause ADD In Babies

Mar 15 2012 | comment(s)

Like vaccines and autism or genetically modified potatoes and immune systems or DDT causing cancer, some myths stick around so long they become truth despite any evidence - and cell phone radiation may be on that same track.

Yale School of Medicine researchers are not immune to jumping on the pop culture bandwagon.  It's easy if you just want to find something vague like Attention Deficit Disorder. In an experiment, they exposed pregnant mice to radiation from a cell phone placed on an active phone call for the duration of the trial. The control group of mice was kept under the same conditions but with the phone deactivated. 
Say Hello To The World’s Largest Radio Telescope

Say Hello To The World’s Largest Radio Telescope

Mar 15 2012 | comment(s)

The giant $2 billion  Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope design is so vast and distributed it will comprise 3,000 dishes spanning the area of an entire continent. It's not here yet but it is coming in the next decade to provide new insights about the darkest corners of our universe.

SKA will detect distant radio signals that may help answer such questions as: Was Einstein right and how did the first stars and black holes form? 
Setting The Record Straight On Squid Antioxidants

Setting The Record Straight On Squid Antioxidants

Mar 15 2012 | comment(s)

Thanks to my awesome brother, I have now acquired and read the full text of the paper I blogged about yesterday: "Purification and in vitro antioxidative effects of giant squid muscle peptides on free radical-mediated oxidative systems."

I was promptly horrified by the authors' two-sentence background about the animals whose skin they were studying:
What is the Mind? 5 Theoretical Possibilities

What is the Mind? 5 Theoretical Possibilities

Mar 15 2012 | comment(s)

Mind is usually considered that part of a person that allows a unified conscious awareness of the world, our bodies, and experiences, including thinking and feeling.

Since mind seems to depend upon molecular activity in cells and in brain circuits, scientists generally assume that mind is created by, or emerges from the cells and the circuits of the brain.

Another view is that the mind uses or interacts with cells and brain circuits like a driver would use a vehicle

Since no one has been able to explain what a subjective experience is, and how it relates to the brain, all theories about the nature of the mind are speculative.

Anti-Aging Claims For Squid Skin Are Actually Legit

Anti-Aging Claims For Squid Skin Are Actually Legit

Mar 15 2012 | comment(s)

UPDATE: I've learned more about how antioxidants work since writing this post.

Maybe this is a sign that I've become cynical, but when I first read that peptides found in squid skin can slow aging, lower blood pressure, activate neurons, and reduce memory loss, I was like pshaw, right!
Recycling: The Short Version

Recycling: The Short Version

Mar 15 2012 | comment(s)

The old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.  In this case, a picture is worth millions.  Millions of tons of carbon dioxide that could be saved if we stopped throwing food into landfills, that is.

Food waste is a pet peeve of mine. Yes, we do it at my house, probably way too much, but there is only so much nagging one can do.  I don't have the yard space to do composting - yes, I know, smelly hippies will insist I do it anyway but it isn't always practical. However, there is a 100% chance is it better to put it in the garbage disposal than in the garbage, so I do that whenever practical (so, not bones).

Check out the graphic below.  Some of it we can all easily do, some of it is not so easy.
ClariVein® Treatment For Venous Stasis Ulcers Demonstrated At European Conference

ClariVein® Treatment For Venous Stasis Ulcers Demonstrated At European Conference

Mar 15 2012 | comment(s)

Inovelon® (rufinamide) Drinkable Suspension Formulation Launched For The First Time In Europe

Inovelon® (rufinamide) Drinkable Suspension Formulation Launched For The First Time In Europe

Mar 15 2012 | comment(s)

Requiem for Humanity — Ecology

Requiem for Humanity — Ecology

Mar 14 2012 | comment(s)

ECOLOGY
   Humans are the most successful consumer of resources that Earth has produced. Our success has altered our planet. Humanity is currently experiencing limits to further growth. We have consumed the easily developed resources across most of our world. We are now faced with more people consuming fewer resources at a higher relative cost. Unchecked this trend will create the same results as in past human history: famine, war and disease.